01. Don't Count Me Out02. Same Old Song03. Nothing04. The Tables Have Turned05. Not Afraid To Die06. Dancing With The Dead07. Tear It Up08. Bye, Die09. My Misery10. A Good Day To Die11. Stay Away12. The Third Wave

No one can deny that Peter Tagtgren is an important person in the world of metal music. Hypocrisy have recorded some classic Death Metal albums and Peter's talents as a producer have helped many bands bring the most out of their music. Unfortunately, Peter's industrial/pop metal band Pain is simply dreadfully wrong and literally a pain to listen to.

First of all, Tagtren's voice is very unsuitable for this kind of music. Obviously he is one of the best growlers around; however, his clean vocals leave a lot to be desired. His one-dimensional performance on this album makes it even less appealing. If the music was good, this could perhaps be forgiven. Sadly, this is not so.

"Same Old Song" is especially embarrasing with its overplayed, comically corny keyboard lines, pathetic lyrics and overtly polished, pop approach. Basically, this is a song so ridiculous that even bands like Dethstars or something would think twice before releasing it. The rest of the album isnt really any better as one cringe-inducing moment follows another. It's an atonal Swede singing lyrics like "We're not afraid to die/We're not afraid to kiss the sky" or "Bye, die" (indeed, the height of being articulate) to a techno beat and overdistorted guitar. At times I could swear I could hear the Backstreet Boys singing in the refrains. This simply cannot be considered good by anyone with any sort of taste. This music should be dumped in the same trash can as the one containing abominations like Zeromancer and VNV Nation.

Unfortunately, I am sure that as a testament to the poor taste of the masses, this album will actually be fairly popular. To those people who might pick up this garbage and think that it is worth anything, I would recommend checking out bands like Gravity Kills, Filter or Stabbing Westward. What they were doing (no less than a decade ago) is seemingly the same thing but they had good vocalists, interesting lyrics, intriguing musical ideas and were not blatantly commercial-sounding and trivial.

Mr. Tagtgren - its nice that you are trying to create music in various styles but please do us all a favor and leave these abominations that you create on the side in your head and concentrate on making Hypocrisy the ground-breaking Death Metal juggernout that it once was...

Comments

I'm sorry to say this, but this review is not reliable for people who want to know about Pain.. this album is more than 3.0..
I respect your idea about Pain, and i rely on you because you are a very professional fan in Industrial Metal, but about Pain you are a bit unfair.

Jupitreas is right, as usual, in that the songwriting in this album is pretty average, but he's wrong, as usual, in saying that's immediately a bad thing. Dancing With The Dead is very catchy, very enjoyable, everything you want to listen to when you're tired of erudite or unconventional music. I could care less for how many people might or might not like it, I can't listen to The Funeral Orchestra all the time, I can't listen to Joe Satriani all the time, I can't listen to Godflesh all the time, there's a space for stuff like Pain sometimes, and bands who try to compete with Pain for that space rarely reach the quality of said band.

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You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it ~ Mean Streets

Damn it, an album is first about an idea - Tagtgren's ideas here are awesome - as alawys.
As for his vocals - it's enough to remember how many vocalists suck countless times more than he does but still get acknowledged - critisizing his vocals after that isn't very smart.

Really bad review... I'm so sorry!!!... completely unfair!!!!
Pain is awesome!!! and this album is one of the best albums of Pain!!!
3.0 !?!?!!?
just enjoy!!! music is an way to enjoy!!! a way of life!!!... lyric is simple!! guitars are simple!! drums is simple!!! but the best music is simple music!!!
although, Pain have always his own technicality!!!

It might not be the most overwhelming album out there, and his voice might not be the virtuoso of some like Jorn, but I think it fits with the music. It's a fun ride, contains some awesome riffs and hooks. And by the way, I absolutely adore Same Old Song.

Yeah Jupitreas was a bit harsh here. He maybe changed opinion for this album (not considering a good one but not in that 3.0 level). Pain is just a band with relaxing music for me, I make a playlist with 2-3 songs-hits from every album and Peter is just chilling me out, nothing more - nothing less.